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[sweeping generalisations alert] I think that a lot of British people have a set of beliefs about their country that are mostly inaccurate and increasingly div
by bambataa 8y ago
[sweeping generalisations alert]
I think that a lot of British people have a set of beliefs about their country that are mostly inaccurate and increasingly divergent from reality.
One is that other countries look up to Britain and are keen to trade on terms dictated by Britain. Brexit is exposing this delusion.
A second is that Britain has a fearsome military that allows it to project its influence as a global power around the world.
A third is that Britain is the birth place of civil rights, has always fought against totalitarianism and has a legal system that since Magna Carta has always protected the primacy of the individual against the state. It's much easier to ignore the increasing number of CCTV cameras when you can just tell yourself that Britain invented Magna Carta so how could Britain's civil liberties not be the envy of the world.
With ID cards I think some of the opposition to them comes from the belief that they're the kind of thing a continental European country would do, as well as resentment against being obliged to carry something by the government. RIPA and CCTV aren't so much of a concern because they don't impose a physical obligation and so are only going to be bothersome to suspect people anyway.
I sometimes think that if/when Britain becomes a dictatorship it'll be a brutally-enforced version of Middle England, with death sentences for people who don't put their bins out properly and so on.
- wgjordan 8y ago> RIPA and CCTV aren't so much of a concern because they don't impose a physical obligation and so are only going to be bothersome to suspect people anyway. This is generally known as the 'nothing to hide' argument [1], for what it's worth. [1] https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/secrecy/you-may-have-nothing-hide-you-still-have-something-fear https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/secrecy/you-may-...
- starbeast 8y ago>I sometimes think that if/when Britain becomes a dictatorship it'll be a brutally-enforced version of Middle England, with death sentences for people who don't put their bins out properly and so on. You just reminded me of this old bit of news - - Half of councils use anti-terror laws to spy on 'bin crimes' https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3333366/Half-of-councils-use-anti-terror-laws-to-spy-on-bin-crimes.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3333366/Half-of-coun...
- distances 8y ago> With ID cards I think some of the opposition to them comes from the belief that they're the kind of thing a continental European country would do, as well as resentment against being obliged to carry something by the government. I don't keep any ID with me. I don't see government issued ID as a means to identify me on the streets, but rather as a way of identifying myself for public and private services. I can't really wrap my head around the fact that not all countries have ID. There must be a way to know who to tax, and who to service?
- bambataa 8y agoAs someone else said, it's mostly a figleaf because in practice the government does everything an ID requires, just in roundabout ways. For tax stuff everyone has a National Insurance number (I think assigned at birth?) so in a sense everyone already does have a unique identifier but you can't use a National Insurance card as ID because it doesn't have a photo. Instead you just have to present a random selection of documents like a driving licence, utility bill, letter from the council etc whenever you want to open an account somewhere. I personally don't have any problem with national ID for the reasons you state.
- ionised 8y agoAs a Brit, this all seems accurate to me. A lot of my fellow citizens seems utterly delusional about their own country and its place in the world.